Main Menu Controls with SNES controller?

[dugan26]

new guy but making fast progress

i have most my emulators up and running with art and games but now im stuck 

How do i get my SNES controller to control the main menu?

Seems as if i can only control the main menu with my PC keyboard 

Controller only starts working once im in a game
Any and all youe continual help is much appreciated 

Great product and great community

[Dunk3000]

Hey mate, welcome

Ok, there probably a tutorial or something that someone will chip in with, but here's the way I got controllers working with my setup (will assume you already have a way for your snes controllers to be detected by windows)...

 

1. Install a program called joy2key (this allows you to translate controller inputs into keyboard input).

2. Create a profile called "start-up" and assign the hyperspin key inputs to whatever buttons you want.

3. Make this start-up profile the default one in joy2key (So it always loads up with this initially)

4. In hyperhq set joy2key to always load with Hyperspin

If done correct. This will mean You can control hyperspin with ur controller, but everything will go wrong once you load a game, right? That's because once you load a game you in the hands of rocketlauncher, so 2 more things you gotta do...

5. On global settings in RL go to keymapper and set a "default" joy2key profile. Make everything blank. This will mean when a system/emulator or game is loaded without it's own profile in rocketlauncher - RL will blank everything, allowing you to input controls direct in to emulator.

6. On global settings in TO go to keymapper and define a "front-end" profile. This the profile that TO will switch to when going back to hyperspin - so make this profile a carbon copy of the "setup" profile you did in step 2.

That should sort it. Would recommend you also go to global settings in TO and define an exit emulator button that's on your controller (I got a held press on the select button)

By having joy2key you can then also setup profiles for tricky systems/emulators or even just the odd game where you want things altered and RL will seamlessly select the correct one when you load the relevant program, making your setup way more versatile than you first realised - I really cannot recommend it enough

Anyways, above worked for me, but writing from memory, so if any of it doesn't make sense just shout.

Hope this helps!

[SupraKarma]

When you say 'SNES controller,' are you referring to 8bitdo SNES30 pads?

If I were you I'd use joy2key as described above, only on my setup I don't mess with the RocketLauncher keymapping functionality at all. JoytoKey is reliable enough as is. The built in RLUI functionality is nice if you want to do a profile for a specific game, but if you're not doing anything that advanced, it's not necessary.

I'd make  a profile for HyperSpin, RocketLauncher (Pause), and then make a __default profile (one that will run for every other app). Note that with your RocketLauncher profile, Pause does not detect arrow keys sent from JoytoKey, so you will have to specify different keys.

In the default profile you could specify a key combo to exit your emulator. On my setup for example, it's select+D-Pad LEFT = End (my exit emulator key).

The default profile should run for all of your emulators without any more hassle.

I also have HyperSpin start with a batch file that launches all the other stuff I need along with it, like HyperSearch and JoytoKey.

Whatever you do, don't choose Xpadder as your keymapper. JoytoKey is way better.



 

[Bungles]

I use Xpadder.. might have to check out JoytoKey. 

I made some Special Art for the NES30 Pro if that's the one you have. 

 

 

[SupraKarma]

Nice Bungles, I have that gamepad. I have the SNES30 from 8bitdo too. I like them, but I wish the power on functionality was independent of the select and start buttons. That gets annoying.

Yeah I used Xpadder for a while, and if you use the standalone version (not RLUI's built in keymapper functionality), it's fairly reliable, once you learn it's quirks. But I was having to create blank profiles for all 4 controllers for every app that launched, otherwise, controllers 2-4 wouldn't switch over to the 'default'. So there's that.

Also, I found out the hard way that Xpadder only allows you to associate 255 autoprofiles. That limitation isn't documented.

When I tried to use Xpadder in RLUI, it was terrible. For one controller you're fine. For 2-4, the controller order would get mixed up constantly.

But with standalone JoytoKey, every time you create a profile, it has all of the controllers load at once for a single profile (eliminating the possibility of controller order being mixed up). You can specify 2-32. There was nothing I could do in XPadder that I can't do in JoytoKey, and in most cases, JoytoKey is alot easier. There's some advanced things I can do with JoytoKey that I can't do at all with Xpadder - like long press two buttons to toggle to an alternate profile (in game), then long press the same button combo to switch back. And hear a sound effect of my choosing when it switches.

Also, JoytoKey supports mapping to the Xbox Guide button.

I'll give Xpadder credit for one thing, and one thing only - it has a prettier interface. But less practical. Once you've been doing this a while you don't feel like hunting down artwork for every new controller you plug in - you just want to get the work done and get to some gaming.

[fire10]

Like Suprakarma said use joytokey, the mighty Gigapig pointed me towards that program after having all kinds of nightmares with xpadder, so glad he did. The only issue I have now and again is that joy to key is not prioritized but is running with the correct profile when exiting emulators back to hyperspin for me sometimes which means I have to press alt tab to get it working again, very strange maybe someone has a fix for this that would be most appreciated.

[SupraKarma]

Do you use joytokey Standalone, or do you use rocketlauncher UI built-in functionality?

[fire10]

I think I only have it set to run with hyperspin and rocketlauncher for individual systems and games etc as I navigate my Rocketlauncher ui manually

[dugan26]

Thank you for the detailed notes here - i will try this and let ya know. Sounds pretty straight forward. Hopefully this workS!!!! 

This is really an amazing product ... best eye candy on the market. Well done to the developers.

Whats the best way to contribute $ to the project?


This thing: 

(as you can tell - im not the most experienced gamer - my son is getting to the age where he can play video games and i want him to have the coolest set up)

[SupraKarma]

Go to Purchase/Orders at the top and purchase the Platinum subscription (one time purchase).

[dugan26]

I'm going to pick up an Xbox controller and give dunk3000 reply a try!!

thanks

[dugan26]

3 hours ago, dugan26 said:

Hi Dunk3000

Sorry for the newbie question - what is "TO" ?


I'm going to pick up an Xbox controller and give dunk3000 reply a try!!

thanks

1. Install a program called joy2key (this allows you to translate controller inputs into keyboard input).

2. Create a profile called "start-up" and assign the hyperspin key inputs to whatever buttons you want.

3. Make this start-up profile the default one in joy2key (So it always loads up with this initially)

4. In hyperhq set joy2key to always load with Hyperspin

If done correct. This will mean You can control hyperspin with ur controller, but everything will go wrong once you load a game, right? That's because once you load a game you in the hands of rocketlauncher, so 2 more things you gotta do...

5. On global settings in RL go to keymapper and set a "default" joy2key profile. Make everything blank. This will mean when a system/emulator or game is loaded without it's own profile in rocketlauncher - RL will blank everything, allowing you to input controls direct in to emulator.

6. On global settings in TO go to keymapper and define a "front-end" profile. This the profile that TO will switch to when going back to hyperspin - so make this profile a carbon copy of the "setup" profile you did in step 2.

That should sort it. Would recommend you also go to global settings in TO and define an exit emulator button that's on your controller (I got a held press on the select button)

By having joy2key you can then also setup profiles for tricky systems/emulators or even just the odd game where you want things altered and RL will seamlessly select the correct one when you load the relevant program, making your setup way more versatile than you first realised - I really cannot recommend it enough 

Anyways, above worked for me, but writing from memory, so if any of it doesn't make sense just shout.

Hope this helps!

[dugan26]

Hiya - 

So i picked up an Xbox 360 controller - 

I ran through the instructions. (very good details). I got the program to work - it controls my keyboard, did a test in notepad and I mapped a few keyboard letters to the joystick, and opened notepad and the appropriate keys made the right letters. Then i mapped Hyperspin up down back and escape - and that worked too.

Just a few questions - if you have a moment, your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

3. Make this start-up profile the default one in joy2key (So it always loads up with this initially)

how do i do this? in the joytokey program i did not see any settings that say make this the start up profile

5. On global settings in RL go to keymapper and set a "default" joy2key profile. Make everything blank.

how do i do this? Do i blank it out here? where i have the blue circle? the top part does not allow me to edit.


 
Finally this is the error i get - however i am running the latest version of joytokey.

My setup
Win10
Hyperspin
RocketLauncher
Retroarch

[SupraKarma]

3. In JoytoKey, settings/Associate profiles with applications.

Can't help you with the other stuf because I don't use it.

[dugan26]

thanks - I associated Hyperspin to my start up profile 

Any idea with this error? AND in my JoyToKey_en folder there is no .ini file ... and i have view hidden files and folders on. 

Any ideas why i would not have an ini file?

Again many thanks in advance - i think Im almost there!!!!

[SupraKarma]

Try copying the JoytoKey.exe to another folder, and open it, and change some settings, and see if a new ini file is created. I have one in mine. It's supposed to be totally portable, meaning you can put it in any folder. Not sure why you wouldn't have an ini file in yours.

[Dunk3000]

Sorry mate, been away. I browse this forum on my phone, so TO is my stupid over aggressive auto correct, meant to say RL (rocketlauncher).

Is long time since i set up joytokey but do remember my folder was set to "read only" on install which would prevent an ini file being created, so maybe check that?

If still having problems lemme know and I'll post my joytokey folder. As supra said, is all portable so should you should be able to run from anywhere...

[dugan26]

Boom!

 

thats it - only problem is my windows keeps putting it back to read only.... 

Ok - thanks! Ill sort windows out and report back

 

i figured it was RL ?

[fire10]

Great work guys anyone have an idea why it seems that sometimes after exiting Emulators back to hyperspin it seems that joy2key has 'lost focus' when I check its running and all the joysticks and pads are found with the correct profile loaded but I have to click the joystick 1 tab to 're focus' then I can control hyperspin again. Hope this makes sense

[Dunk3000]

8 hours ago, fire10 said:

Great work guys anyone have an idea why it seems that sometimes after exiting Emulators back to hyperspin it seems that joy2key has 'lost focus' when I check its running and all the joysticks and pads are found with the correct profile loaded but I have to click the joystick 1 tab to 're focus' then I can control hyperspin again. Hope this makes sense

Hey Fire, I used to have a similar problem where I had "press and hold back button" as my exit emulator and also had the "back button" assigned to a hyperspin control.

I figured maybe hyperspin was not liking being returned to whilst an input for it was being pressed.

So I removed all assignments for  "back button" in hyperspin and it's much better.

Maybe you have something similar?

[fire10]

Thanks Dunk I'll check that out mate